Music-leaf turner.



C. A. ELLIOTT.

MUSIC LEAF TURNER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.28, 1916.

1,220,077. Patented Mar. 20, 1917.

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.UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES A. ELLIOTT, or ENGADINE, MICHIGAN.

MUSIC-LEAF TURNER.

Application filed August 28, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

it known that 1, CHARLES A. ELLIOTT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Engadine, in the county of Mackinac and State'of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Music- Leaf Turners; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in sheet music turners operated by a shift pedal.

The main object of the invention is to provide a simply constructed and efficient device of this character so that the leaves will be readily turned with a very slight effort and yet the sheet holders held reliably in engagement with their operating mechanism to prevent any rebound of said holders.

Another object is to provide facilities for adjusting the device to fit various sized instruments.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 represents a front elevation of an upright piano equipped with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof;

Fig. 3 is a central transverse vertical section;

Fig. 1 is an enlarged detail vertical section through the leaf holder;

Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view of the rack bar of the leaf turner;

Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view of a combined pinion support and brake;

Fig. 7 is a transverse section through the bearing; and

Fig. 8 is a transverse section taken on the line 88 of Fig. 1.

The present embodiment of the invention is shown in connection with an upright piano P and comprises a music holder 1 hav-' ing leaf turning arms and to which is connected a suitable foot actuated mechanism 3;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 20, 1917.

Serial No. 117,271.

The holder comprises a bearing 4 fastened to the front of the piano P preferably by screws and is shown composed of two plates 5 and 6 arranged in superposed relation and having registering rounded recesses 7 in their opposed faces to receive a plurality of nested shafts, three of which are here shown and which work within each other, that is to say, shaft 8 is a hollow outer shaft through which a smaller hollow shaft 9 passes and in which latter is mounted to turn an inner shaft 10. The inner shaft 10 may be either solid or hollow as desired. Each of these shafts extends beyond the other at each end so that the attachments carried thereby will clear each other when revolving, these attachments being the cog wheels 11, 12 and 13 fixed to the upper ends of the shafts, and sheet holders 1 1, 15, and 16 extending laterally from the lower ends thereof.

These sheet holders each consists of two spring clamping jaws 17 and 18 shown in the form of strips of spring steel. The sheet holder 11 which is connected with the inner shaft 10 has two laterally extending arms 19 and 20 between which the lower end of shaft 10 is inserted and rigidly secured, said jaws being arranged parallel with each other and extending at right angles to the shaft 10, whereby they may 36 properly positioned to receive and support a sheet of music as is shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings. The jaws 17 and 18 are each provided on their opposed side edges with longitudinally extending outwardly deflected flanges 21 and 22, those on one jaw extending away from those on the other to facilitate the insertion between them at one side of the sheet to be held and those on the other side being designed to facilitate opening of the jaws. These jaws 17 and 18 are provided on their upper edges with superposed spaced finger grips 23 and 24 which project at right angles to the flanges on said edges and are designed to facilitate opening of the jaws, a spacing member 25 being shown arranged between said finger grips. The three holders shown are constructed exactly alike except that the finger grips are arranged one a little in advance of the other so as not to interfere with each other and to permit one sheet holder to lie fiat against the other.

The holder 15 which is carried by the intermediate hollow shaft 9 has a transversely curved laterally extending arm 26 which is rigidly fastened to the back of said hollow shaft 9, and the third sheet holder 16 is fastened to the back of the outer shaft 8 by a similar arm 27, the only difierence being that the arm of the holder 16 is longer than that of holder 15 which is necessary to adapt the various holders to be connected with the respective shafts which vary in length as above described, and in order that the holders may be disposed evenly in transverse alinement with each other. The outer sheet holder 14 is provided with a cushion 28 on its outer face at its free end to prevent abrasion of the instrument when the holder is opened, and sheet holder 16 has a cushion 29 on its rear face at its free end for a similar reason, no cushion being necessary on the intermediate holder.

A holder supporting standard 30 is secured to the bearing 4 and is composed of a metal standard having laterally extending longitudinally spaced spring steel arms 31, 32, and 33 suitably spaced to extend between the cog wheels or pinions 11, 12, and

13, and form a combined support and brake therefor. The free ends of these arms are .arms 31 and 32 are bifurcated at their free ends to adapt them to straddle the shaft on which the respective cog wheels 11 and 12 are mounted so that the braking free ends of said arms will be positioned beyond said shafts and the body or inner portions thereof will operate as rests to hold the cogs in spaced relation. The arm 31 extends between the cogs 11 and 12 and forms a support for cog 12 and a brake for cog 11, while the arm 32 extends between the cogs 12 and 13 and forms a support for cog 13 and the brake for cog 12. The uppermost arm 33 has its free end offset and said end bears on the top of cog 13 and operates as a brake therefor.

A segmental cog operating gear member 35 is carried at one end of a cross bar 36 which latter is attached to the top of the instrument P by a screw pivot 37 and separated from the instrument by a washer 38. This bar is constructed in the form of two slidably engaged sections 39 and 40 here shown in the form of fiat metal strips or bars, one of which has a laterally extending transverse slotted inner end or arm 41 through which the section 39 passes and is adapted to slide. The section 40 is provided with a longitudinally extending slot 452 through which a thumb screw 43 earried by section 39 xtends to provide for the adjustable engagement of the two sections.

segmental gear 35 and is mounted in a guide 44 secured either to the top or within the instrument just under the top.

The segmental gear 35 is provided with three groups of teeth 4 46, and 47, which are odset from each other to form steps positioned for engaging the cogs 11, 12, and 13, the lower series 45 being designed to engage and operate cog 11, the intermediate series 46 being positioned for operatin cog 12, and the upper series 47 to operate cog 13. It will thus be understood that when the bar 36 is moved laterally, these series of teeth will successively engage the various cogs and through them turn the shafts to which they are fixed and thereby swing the music holders for turning the sheets clamped between them.

The rear end of the section 39 of the cross bar 36 has a slot 39 therein which is adj stably engaged with a pin 49 carried by the upper end of an adjustable upright 50, said pin being here shown in the form of a reduced threaded extension made integral with the upright 50, and a nut 51 operates to hold said upright and cross bar in engagement.

The upright is attached to the rear of the instrument P by a screw pivot 52 with a spacing washer 53 disposed between said upright and the instrument, and said upright consists of two telescopically engaged members 54 and 55 held in adjusted position by a thumb screw 56 carried by one member and passing through a longitudinally extending slot 57 in the other. The lower end of the upright 50 is pivotally con nected with the rear end of the laterally movable shift pedal 3. This shift pedal or actuating lever 3 is adapted to be secured to the under side of the instrument by means of a screw pivot 58 which passes through said lever intermediately of its ends and is engaged with the instrument, having a metal spacing washer 59 arranged between the pedal and the instrument to which it is attached. This lever is preferably composed of two telescopically engaged sections 60 and 61 held in adjustable engagement by means of a set screw 62 carried by one of said sections and passing through a slot 63 in the other to adapt the device to fit instruments of various widths.

From the above description it will be obvious that this improved attachment may be applied to any piano or other similar instrument and adjusted to position the clamping jaws or leaf holders conveniently to support the sheets of music to be turned, and that when the device is applied as shown in Fig. 1, all that is necessary to turn a sheet is for the operator to move the shift pedal 3 laterally a suficient distance to cause the .j'group of teeth 47 carried by the gear 35 to The section 40 carries at its free end the mesh with and turn the cog 13, thereby swinging the holder 14 connected therewith and turn the sheet carried thereby. A further shifting of the lever will cause the group of teeth L6 to engage the intermediate cog 12 and operate the intermediate leaf holder 15. A still further lateral movement of the lever 3 will bring the teeth 45 into meshing engagement with the cog 11 and turn the holder 16 without necessitating the operator moving his hands from the keys. The peculiar cog supporting and braking means provided herein serves to hold the leaf turners exactly in their place to cause each cog to mesh. with its cooperating set of gear teeth and thereby insure the accurate operation of the device. The braking action of the spring arms 31, 32 and 33 prevents the music leaf holders from rebounding or flopping backward after they have been actuated.

I claim:

1. The combination with a supporting structure; of a plurality of upright rotatably mounted nested shafts projecting be yond each other at one end, pinions fixed to the projecting ends of said shafts, leaf hold ers carried by said shafts, a plurality of series of teeth arranged in vertically offset relation and positioned for successive engagement with the respective pinions, means for actuating said teeth to rotate said pinions, means for supporting said pinions to permit them to turn freely independently of each other, and means carried by said sup porting means to exert a braking action on said pinions to prevent rebounding of the leaf holders when actuated by the turning of the pinions.

2. The combination with a supporting structure; of a plurality of upright rotatably mounted nested shafts projecting beyond each other at one end, pinions fixed to the projecting ends of said shafts, leaf holders carried by said shafts, a member attached to said structure and having laterally extending arms projecting between said pinions, said arms having offset portions and forming combined pinion supports and braking devices, and means for successively op erating said pinions to turn said holders.

3. The combination with a supporting structure; of a plurality of upright rotatably mounted nested shafts projecting be yond each other at one end, pinions fixed to the projecting ends of said shafts, leaf holders carried by said shafts, a member attached to said structure and having laterally extending spring arms with ofi'set ends, said arms projecting between said pinions, the body portion of the arm en aging and supporting one pinion and its 0 set portion having braking engagement with the ad jacent pinion, and means for successively operating said pinions.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES A. ELLIOTT.

Witnesses:

SAMUEL E. ELLIOTT, OSCAR A. WALSTAD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

